


they thought us blind (we were just blinking)

by sesquidpedalian



Series: Dr. Stone Week 2020 [4]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Burglary, Dubious Morality, Dubious Science, First Meetings, Kissing, Scheming, but they're sure not the good guys, i don't know if they're villains exactly, kissing for work purposes?? i guess??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25023760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sesquidpedalian/pseuds/sesquidpedalian
Summary: Tsukasa steps into the research facility, and he feels his world splinter into possibility.The way it should have gone:Tsukasa survives the tour largely unscathed, save for a few burn marks on his right sleeve and the sound of Senku’s mad-scientist laughter ringing in his ears.The way it could have gone:“Wanna help me play a prank on Senku?”The way it actually went:“He’s dangerous,” Senku rasps.“If he’s dangerous, my dear, what are we?”For Dr. Stone Week 2020 Day Four: (Re)Invention - Shatter, Different First Meetings, Role Reversal
Relationships: Asagiri Gen/Ishigami Senkuu
Series: Dr. Stone Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2078955
Comments: 11
Kudos: 91
Collections: Dr. Stone Week 2020





	they thought us blind (we were just blinking)

**Author's Note:**

> title from "The Horror and The Wild" by The Amazing Devil

_The way it should have gone:_

“Ishigami Senku. Pleasure to meet you.”

Tsukasa’s first thought is that he looks _young_. Tsukasa knew what he was walking into, signing up for security work at a cutting-edge research-and-development facility run by the youngest, brightest minds the country has to offer, but Senku, with his spiky, green-tipped hair and huge, ember-red eyes, is a _kid_.

Tsukasa towers over him as he takes the outstretched hand.

“The honour is mine,” he says.

Senku laughs. “No need to be so formal. Come on, I’ll show you around.”

“You?”

Senku blinks innocently at him. “Sure. Why not?”

“I assumed you would have important work to attend to,” Tsukasa says, eyeing the piles of paper slumped on Senku’s desk.

“Nah.” Senku gets up, strides smoothly over to the door, and pushes it open. “I’m in charge of the labs and security. No time for _paperwork_ ,” he says disdainfully.

“Of course.” It’s a spacious room. Tsukasa wonders what secrets it has to hide.

“C’mon,” Senku says, grabbing Tsukasa by the arm and pulling as if that’s going to accomplish anything against Tsukasa’s comparative size. Tsukasa picks up his pace obligingly nonetheless. “I wanna show you the labs. The most exhilarating stuff is down there, and as a member of our security team, you should know what you’ll be protecting, right?”

Senku’s smile shines with conspiracy.

“Are all of your projects in the same place?”

Senku snorts. “No. Split between vault, storehouses, and labs.” He hands Tsukasa a set of keys. “You’ll need those, now that you’re on our side. That one with the paint on it leads to the vault, where we keep stuff that isn’t being tested in the labs. Protect it with your _life_.” His eyes have gone blazing, intensely serious. “We can’t let anyone in there without thorough authorization.”

Then the sternness drops away and he looks like a child in a toy store again, leading the way through a maze of corridors. “‘Course, you probably won’t need to use that key anyway. Mostly you’re just gonna walk around and keep an eye on the cameras. Hurry up, I wanna show you the prototypes we’re working on. They’re incredible. The rest of the security team doesn’t really care, which is dumb because half their stuff we _made_ for them—”

“Ranting at the newbie, dear?” a sing-song voice calls. 

Senku pulls a face before turning around. “What do you want, mentalist?”

Behind them is a person in long purple robes, his hands tucked in immaculate sleeves. Next to him is Hyoga, who is professional enough to hide every indication that he’s feeling the same surprise Tsukasa is.

“This is Gen,” Senku tells Tsukasa flatly.

Gen smiles at Tsukasa and gestures to Senku. “This is Senku.”

“Who’s that?”

Gen waves his hand in Hyoga’s face before he can speak. “Wait wait wait, let me try!” He clears his throat, and then, in a startlingly good impression of Hyoga’s voice, says, “I’m Hyoga. Nice to meet you.” 

“Now if only you were that skilled when it came to running your part of the company.”

“Ah, who’s the one hollering about our top-secret tech to someone we don’t know we can trust yet? No offense,” Gen adds quickly. 

“None taken,” Tsukasa says.

Gen beams, bright with a hint of teeth. 

“I know what I’m doing,” Senku scoffs. “Can the same be said of you?”

“ _I’m_ showing our lovely new employee around! On top of all the other work you left for me thanks to that total aversion to paperwork of yours, I’m being generous enough to do your job for you.”

“Your ‘work’ is basically just _publicity_ , and yet somehow you’re the rudest, least charming person I’ve ever met. I should fire you.”

“Oh, we all know you could never do that to little old me,” Gen coos, prowling right into Senku’s personal space.

“Try me,” he snarls, glaring.

Tsukasa sneaks a glance at Hyoga. Hyoga’s mouth twitches. 

_They’re idiots,_ he seems to say.

Tsukasa raises an eyebrow. 

_Yeah._

Their new bosses are standing so close their noses are practically touching as they hiss insults at each other. 

_Hopelessly in love too, apparently._

He schools his face into bland neutrality when Senku finally decides he’s had enough and shoves Gen away. The two of them are so busy stomping away from each other, dragging their respective recruits with them, that neither notice what Hyoga’s hands are doing.

Tsukasa survives the rest of the tour largely unscathed, save for a few burn marks on his right sleeve and the sound of Senku’s mad-scientist laughter ringing in his ears. He and Hyoga walk out of the building, nod cordially, and go their separate ways. 

When they meet up a few days later, strolling idly through a park not far from Tsukasa’s apartment, the first words out of Hyoga’s mouth are, unsurprisingly, “They’re idiots.”

Tsukasa grunts an affirmative. “You found where the real key is?”

“I took it from his pocket. Their measures are so transparent it’s like they’re not even trying. Pathetic.”

Tsukasa takes the key card from Hyoga, examines it closely. “You copied it.”

“The original is back in his office. He’ll assume he misplaced it the way he misplaces everything else. Neither of them will notice. We can be in and out quick as we want. They change the codes and locks every three months, so we have until then if we need to wait.”

Tsukasa blinks at his accomplice. “How do you know that?”

“He told me. Apparently, being his assistant mostly means listening to him talk about whatever comes to mind.”

Tsukasa hums in thought. In the trees, a bird calls.

Later, their heist should go off without a hitch. It should be an effortless thing to dodge the flimsy security, especially after Tsukasa figures out how to take control of the whole system. It should take Senku and Gen months to put together what happened, and by then, Hyoga and Tsukasa should be long gone, plotting out their next target. _Should_. That’s not how it happens.

* * *

_The way it could have gone:_

Hyoga remains stubbornly unmoving when, a week after he’s hired, Gen leans over his desk and pokes him. There is a scheming grin on his face. 

“Wanna help me play a prank on Senku?”

“I’m not sure that’s wise,” Hyoga says, clipped and professional. He doesn’t take his eyes off the screen before him, working through the heap of vague, meandering reports Gen dumped on his desk in the morning.

“C’mon, it’ll be exciting,” Gen weedles. “I know you don’t like him anymore than I do—” Hyoga bites back the impulse to ask just how much Gen likes that boy “—since he’s the reason you have to sort through all these awful reports anyway. He’s terrible at this whole accountability thing.” Gen crosses his arms petulantly, looks away. “ _Awful_.”

Hyoga pauses in his work (what on Earth does _got a new part for the old motor sitting in the back of the warehouse; todo: arson-ify_ even mean?) and stares Gen down.

“Who’s standing behind me?” he asks.

Gen’s eyes go wide. “W-what?”

“Who’s standing behind me holding a bucket over my head?” When Gen continues to splutter, he says, “I have excellent hearing. I know what you were planning. You’re a surprisingly good liar, I’ll give you that, but you’re terrible at keeping a secret.”

Upon realizing Hyoga will not be fooled, Gen discards his joviality like a ragged costume. “So are you, dear.” He waves the person behind Hyoga away.

Without turning around, Hyoga makes quiet note of the cadence of their voice when they answer Gen, the weight of their footsteps when they walk away. (Could be of service later.)

Gen taps on the surface of the deak. “I think I’m going to like you.” A thoughtful pause. “ _Now_ will you help me prank Senku?”

Hyoga considers, face blank. 

“I’ll get back to you.”

At lunch, taken at a picnic table under a leafy-green tree, Hyoga says, “I think he could be a useful spy.”

“He won’t turn on Senku. You’ve seen how they look at each other. As I keep telling you, our only choice is to take them down.”

“I think he could be persuaded. Love is not so far from hate, anyway. With the appropriate...evidence against Senku, and sufficiently enticing promises, we may be able to convince him to join us. He appears foolish, but he’s mostly self-serving. We shouldn’t have much trouble getting him what he wants.” 

Tsukasa frowns at his lunch for a moment. “I have a proposal as well. What do you think about getting both of them?”

Hyoga tilts his head, a silent question.

“Senku likes helping people well enough, but he’s said himself he would choose his tech over human beings any day. And he chafes against bureaucracy. We could offer him the freedom to do whatever work he likes, give him funds for his projects, and get his help in exchange. He’s smart, when it comes to science and technology, and I don’t think he’s evil the way the others were.”

“And if we have both, then there’s incentive for each to stick around, to stay near the other.” Hyoga nods. “Very proper. I like it.”

“Good. See what you can do about Gen. I’ll have to warn my sister. Seems we’ll be staying longer than expected.”

Hyoga bites into his sandwich with an air of finality.

Later, they could get Gen and Senku on their side. The two of them could feel quiet, separate satisfaction at their profits and freedom, respectively. Gen could learn to be immeasurably useful, plied with the promise of luxury and fortune. Senku could bury himself in his scientific experiments, dipping freely into questionable subjects that would make polite society grimace. Hyoga and Tsukasa could continue their work without any trouble. _Could_. That’s not how it happens either.

* * *

_The way it actually went:_

Gen corners Senku in a corridor tucked in an out-of-the-way corner of the facility.

“We need to talk,” he murmurs, leaning in far closer than is polite.

“Oh yeah?” Senku replies. He backs into the wall as Gen presses closer, tilting his head to one side like a challenge and letting his eyes flick conspicuously down.

“May I kiss you?” Gen asks.

Senku scoffs. “What a gentleman. Go for it.”

Gen leans in the rest of the way and presses their mouths together. Senku hums, sounding equal parts amused and bored. One hand tangles itself in Gen’s hair, the other settles on his lower back. Gen tugs playfully at Senku’s bottom lip before pulling away.

“Biting? Really?”

“Oh, there are creatures with sharper teeth than me around, dear.”

Senku’s eyes narrow. “Explain,” he mutters. He closes the distance between them again, and the surprised noise Gen makes is only half fake.

“You’re awfully excited,” he manages to gasp when they break apart again.

“The camera’s right there. I can do it again if you want.”

“No need,” Gen whispers, pressing their foreheads together. “Hold still. We can talk safely for a bit right now.” His smile turns bitterly amused. “They’ll think we’re whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears.”

“You know something.” Senku’s tone drops to match Gen’s perfectly, eyes sliding half-shut. On anyone else, it would be fond.

“A dear employee of ours has found their way into the vault. The main one.” Gen flicks his tongue out, manages to poke the tip of Senku’s nose. Senku scrunches his face, the corner of his mouth curving up.

“Gross. That wasn’t romantic at all.”

Gen giggles, lets it carry for the hidden microphones. “We can get away with being a little silly.” Dropping his voice until he’s not entirely sure it’s audible, he says, “Flip me around—I think I heard something.”

Senku obeys, eyes bright. The sound of Gen’s back hitting the wall makes the footsteps from around the bend in the hallway freeze. Gen tugs Senku a bit closer, kisses him again with a loud _smack_.

The footsteps retreat.

“Who do you think that was?”

“Kohaku. Didn’t even hear her until she got close. She’s obsessive about patrol, and she wants nothing to do with us when we do this. Now. Which employee?”

“Haven’t figured it out yet. But it’s someone who knows where one of the real keys is.”

“Not a lot of those.”

“Which should make your job a lot easier, my dear Detective Senku.”

For the sake of the show, Senku yanks on Gen’s clothes and loudly grumbles, “What is it with you and all these layers? Let me see you, you jerk.”

Gen tilts his head back to laugh, lets Senku do the unbuttoning. Hands on his hips, a huff of warm air on the skin of his neck. He shivers. Senku adds a kiss there like an afterthought.

Senku continues, more breath than sound, “The newest one. He has the security cameras, which I imagine is why you insisted we do this—” he pauses mid-sentence to brush kisses along Gen’s jaw, eliciting appropriately pleased noises “—and he’s perceptive. I hear someone matching his description is growing into quite the Robin Hood in this city lately. His friend probably swiped the key card in your pocket already.”

“Clever Senku,” Gen coos, trailing feather-light touches up Senku’s back. “I did think it was odd when that card managed to teleport from my coat onto my desk. How do we take care of it?”

“The white-haired one will notice if his partner-in-crime disappears. And he’s the type to ask more questions than he should. It’s too bad; I thought those two would be useful for longer.”

Gen cups Senku’s face, smiles lovingly. Moving his mouth as little as possible, he says, “Change the keys. All of them. We’ll leave the fakes where he’ll find them.”

“A warning?”

“Precisely,” Gen purrs. “I’ve taken a liking to the white-haired one. He might have the good sense to keep working for us for the time being.”

“He’s dangerous,” Senku rasps, idle fingers tracing patterns on Gen’s skin under his shirt.

“If he’s dangerous, my dear Senku, what are we?” 

Grinning, wicked sharp, Senku drags Gen into a fierce kiss. 

“You’re lucky you’re so enthusiastic about this,” Gen mutters, getting in a warning nibble before he pulls away. “You really need to practice more.”

“Because people are practically lining up to practice kissing with me.” Turned away from the camera, he gets the luxury of rolling his eyes.

“I’d be happy to help.” Gen offers his brightest smile.

In retaliation, Senku pushes Gen against the wall and manages to bring _tongue_ into it for all of ten seconds before Gen pushes at him. 

Out of breath but otherwise unperturbed, Senku reviews. “Fake the keys, see what he does? I don’t suppose they gave us actual names to work with.”

“Probably not.”

Senku leans back, shifts to hide Gen’s face from the camera. “You still want the electricity system for the vaults, right? And the usual people to follow them home?”

“Yes please. Less to clean than if we use the turrets. We only just got the new janitor, after all. Should ease the poor guy into it.”

When Gen next moves his lips against Senku’s, it’s slow and lingering and almost sweet.

“You’ll want new backdoors into the security system too,” Gen says. “So we don’t have to do this every time. And we need to check how he’s been editing the feeds.” Gen winks and adds, louder, “Just wait until tonight, my dear. I have a _surprise_ planned that I think you’re going to like.”

“Can’t wait,” Senku chuckles. Softer, he says, “Good idea. But we _have_ to find better code phrase for ‘I’m sending you a fucking email.’” One more peck on the cheek for good measure. “Okay, we’ve been here long enough. Talk again later. You take care of the keys, I’ll deal with the security.”

Gen plants a kiss on Senku’s forehead, twining his fingers in blond-green hair, and waits.

_One...Two..._

A sharp whine from the loudspeakers, exactly on schedule. A sarcastic voice, crackly over the intercom, says, “Would the two people doing questionable things in side hall 2F52 _please_ get back to doing their jobs.”

Very faintly, they hear another voice shout, “Leave them alone, Kohaku. Let the emotionally-repressed weirdos make out in peace for once!”

“We can _see_ you,” the voice continues, disgruntled. “And _hear_ you. Don’t you guys have better things to be doing?” 

Gen straightens up, adjusting his clothes. Senku steps aside smoothly, and in unison, they turn to the nearest speaker and mock-salute. “Yes ma’am!”

“You’re not even looking at the camera. You know that, right?” 

Gen beams. “Whoopsie! Where is that camera again?” 

Senku ducks his head, gets away with mumbling, “Laying it on thick, aren’t you?”

“Up and to your right, Gen,” Kohaku says in her most defeated tone. “You guys are hopeless. How are you in charge of this place?”

“We’ll get going now. See you around, Kohaku,” Senku calls.

Later, Kohaku will notice that a certain member of the security team hasn’t been in for a while. She will ask Kinro about this, idly curious on a long, slow day, and he will stare over the tops of his glasses, inscrutable as ever, and say, “I don’t know, but I’m sure our bosses have their reasons for doing what they do.” And then Ginro will burst into the room with popsicles, and the question will be forgotten, because Senku and Gen are ridiculous, sure, but they’re all right, and ultimately, they mean well. What kind of harm could _they_ do?

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The two of them](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25058161) by [EndlessFangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndlessFangirl/pseuds/EndlessFangirl)




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